Kolkata: In another major reshuffle of the Bengal Police and Kolkata Police, the state govt has transferred 33 senior police officers on Tuesday. The reshuffle meant that the state’s investigating agency, the CID, will have a new boss.The Bidhannagar police commissioner has been shifted too. The Baruipur police division , which handled the 12-year schoolgirl’s rape and murder and the encounter of the main accused, has also witnessed crucial transfers.The reshuffle includes 28 IPS officers and five Bengal Police Service (WBPS) officers, dramatically altering the leadership structure across key investigating units, including the CID and Bengal STF.Among the most high-profile changes is the shifting of former Kolkata Police commissioner Supratim Sarkar out of his role as the additional director general (ADG) of the CID. Sarkar, a 1997-batch officer who had previously been assigned as a police observer in Tamil Nadu by the Election Commission ahead of the state assembly polls, has been relocated to a comparatively low-profile position as the ADG of the telecommunications dept. Taking his place as the new chief of the state’s elite crime-busting unit is senior IPS officer Natarajan Ramesh Babu. Ramesh Babu, who recently earned high praise from CM Adhikari following the successful recovery of unauthorized mobile phones and SIM cards from inmates inside the high-security Presidency Correctional Home. He will take over as the director general (DG) and inspector general of police (IGP), CID, while retaining additional charge of the Correctional Services Department.Concurrently, the state govt has instituted a sharp shake-up at the top tier of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate. The incumbent Bidhannagar Police commissioner, Tripurari Atharv, has been transferred from his post and reassigned as the ADG of the traffic and road safety dept. Taking his place as the new commissioner of Bidhannagar is Amitkumar Rathore, who was previously stationed as the deputy inspector general (DIG) of the Raiganj Range. IG (STF) Praveen Tripathi, who had earlier served as the police commissioner for both Howrah and Barrackpore has been now posted as the inspector general (IG) of the Home Guards. K Jayraman, presently serving as ADG (North Bengal) has been appointed as director, Directorate of Economic Offences., a key post in the present regime that wishes to weed out previous “institutional corruption.’According to a section of the police establishment, Jayaraman is known to have investigated the corruption case involving the Siliguri-Jalpaiguri Development Authority. In 2013, as the then Police Commissioner of Siliguri, he arrested former SJDA CEO and IAS officer Godala Kiran Kumar.The administrative realignment also addresses the recent law-and-order challenges in the South 24 Parganas district, though the state claimed the transfers “to be routine.” Following a series of severe violent crimes in Baruipur—including the rape and murder of a minor girl, following by mob lynching and the encounter of the main accused in the rape and murder case and the throat-slitting murder of a 17-year-old boy following a local football match dispute—the govt has realigned the local police leadership.Atish Biswas, formerly the additional superintendent of police (SP) for East Midnapore, has been appointed as the new additional SP (Zonal) of the Baruipur Police District. Pinaki Dutta has been removed from that administrative post and transitioned into the role of additional SP, District Intelligence Branch (DIB) for the same district.In Kolkata Police, IPS officer Pradeep Kumar will take charge as the new deputy commissioner (DC) of Cyber Crime for Kolkata Police, replacing Sparsha Nilangi, who will now be DC, Enforcement Branch. Arindam Sarkar will be the new DC, East Division. Manish Joshi moves from DC, Traffic, to serve as SP, Cooch Behar, while Amlan Kusum Ghosh continues as DC, North, Howrah relinquishing his additional charge as DC KP STF.Other notable senior officials affected in this multi-tiered state police reshuffle include senior IPS officers like Anand Kumar (now the ADG Western Zone), Vishal Garg (now ADG-IB), Sukesh Kumar Jain (now IG North Bengal), Sudheer Kumar Neelakantham (now IG STF), David Evan Lepcha, Dinesh Kumar, Pradeep Kumar Yadav, Bishop Sarkar, YS Jagannath Rao, Pratiksha Jhadkharia, and Yashpreet Singh. Among them, Rao will be new SP Darjeeling.Nabanna officials have called the transfers routine to increase administrative efficiency.
